The Land Breakers

by John Ehle

Book Overview

A motley band of characters makes its way into a high mountain valley in northwestern North Carolina to tame the land or to be consumed by it. Five years of struggle to create a community ensue, in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590177630
• ISBN13: 9781590177631
• Release Date: November 2014
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.87 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Land and People, For All Time

Simply, I do believe, the finest single piece of literature set in Appalachia. Loved it years ago; re-read it just now, cherishing every perfectly-chosen word and regional idiom, the living, breathing realness of the people, the mastery of how things worked in that hard time and place, where the loss of a crop, or the death of a dog, could end the story in starvation and terror. It's a love story on the deepest level, of men and women, neighbors and kin, of an awesome, fearsome, seductive setting, and above all, of the land itself. And such characters! Prideful, spiteful, empire-building little old Tinkler Harrison, who made his first profit on 14 hogs rustled from a neighbor; his shiftless, trifling brother-in-law Ernest Plover, fiddling beside the collapsed family lean-to while his flock of oblivious, barefooted, gorgeous young daughters dance gleefully in the snow; Mooney Wright, who must ultimately wrestle a monster bear to protect the stock that stands between his adopted family and hunger; and indeed the bear itself, who -- like every other tenant of that wild country, is neither saint nor total villain. NOBODY can quite match John Ehle as a story-teller; in this, the first volume of a continuing Wright family saga, no word or image is wasted; they all lead somewhere. And caught up in them, we yearn to go along.

Exciting, terrifying early American history, masterfully written..

This is the first Ehle book I've read and I can say categorically that he richly deserves every award won, and more. From Ireland's County Ulster to the mist shrouded highlands of North Carolina, Mooney and Imy Wright search for a new beginning. The year is 1779, the infancy of a new country. Both are indentured servants finally free of service. They're accustomed to working hard in tandem and are willing to fight for any parcel of land they can find to call home. Home becomes a high mountain valley, a place of breath taking vistas thick with primeval forests and dangerous predators. Working together side by side as they have done since childhood, Imy and Mooney clear a spot of land and build a cabin. Family by family, new settlers move into the mountain valley. Tinkler Harrison sold vast holdings in Virginia to resettle in the new territory. Tinkler is a hard man who desires to be master of all he surveys. Accompanying him are herds of livestock, horses, seed for planting, several slaves, and his remaining son and daughter. All but two of his children have deserted him. Ernest Plover is the patriarch of a bedraggled band of daughters, each one prettier than the next. The oldest daughter, Belle, becomes Tinkler's bride. In contrast to Tinkler's mansion home and the Wright's sturdy cabin, the Plover's build a ramshackle cabin that barely protects them from the elements. German immigrant Nicholas Benz brings his family to the mountain in search of peace and promise. Nicholas is a hard worker who hides his demons behind a bland façade. The Larkins are newlyweds, still too young to fully understand the hardness of life. Like their neighbors, they enjoy the mountain air that seems clean and alive. The mountains, forests, and valley are still and peaceful except for nature sounds. Primordial forests surround them, vibrant with bloom and bird. Despite the hardships, this small community of settlers love their mountain valley. Each family battles the elements and wild animals while laboring to break fields and plant crops. In 1779, any illness or injury can prove fatal. Imy is the first to die of lung fever and overwork in harsh weather. In a hair raising passage that left me shivering, the Larkins are lost when their cabin is overrun with swarms of poisonous snakes. Dogs and livestock are lost and Mooney seriously injured when a huge marauding bear attacks each enclave. The Land Breakers is a beautifully written saga of life as it was in the early years of America. Mooney and Lorry Wright, Tinkler Harrison, and Pearlamina Harrison are unforgettable characters. Such pioneers survived in a harsh country without adequate food, wearing flimsy homemade shoes - if they had shoes at all -- and homespun clothing, lacking medical care or medicine. There were no schools, no churches, no stores, no doctors, no roads. They persisted, subsisted on sheer will and labor that people today cannot comprehend. The living his

Powerful Story

From my perspective as a poet, I applaud an author who knows how to use good, solid declarative sentences to tell an unforgettable story. So solid, in fact, is author John Ehle's command of the language, that the words in his powerful novel, The Land Breakers, seem carved on the pages. Yet, there is a lyrical beauty in the cadence of his characters' speech, that takes me back to my own roots and ancestry. When one of Ehle's most memorable characters, Mina, declares, "Law, I never thought no such a thing," I could picture my grandmother, Ila, and her sister, Ethel, sitting on the front porch "of an evening," saying something very similar, if not precisely the same. It was always "Law" this and "Law" that, as if every statement needed that linguistic punch to make it authentic. And authentic is what this book is, without question. I can't imagine how any photograph could be more revealing of what life was like for settlers in the mountains of Northwestern North Carolina between the years of 1779 and 1784, than this exquisitely rendered piece of work. If I never fully appreciated the miracle of electricity, not to mention my dishwasher, the washer and dryer, the convenience of grocery stores, and the nearly impenetrable walls of my professionally-built home, believe me, I do now! So, I urge you--curl up in your favorite chair and spend an afternoon with The Land Breakers. I promise you won't be able to put it down until the very last word is chiseled into your imagination, and the characters firmly entrenched in your heart. It is a must-read for anyone who appreciates an excellent story, masterfully told.

Great American Pioneer Story

A great read if you enjoy books on early American Pioneering! I didn't want to put it down.

Early American Struggle

This book was a marvelous look into the lives of the earliest mountain settlers in our country. Full of drama, detail, and description, it leaves one with the sense of being there during those early days when just surviving was a day-to-day struggle. I highly recommend...it was a book to read over and over.